Thirty Kisses: Hay Ride
by Muffles
Summary: Written for the Thirty Kisses community. Takes place after Slayers Premium. Amelia and Zelgadis are still traveling together. They get a little tired of walking and decide to hitch a ride on a hay wagon.


Author's notes: This fic is written for theme #5, "Ano sa" ("Hey, you know...") It's set right after Slayers Premium, because that's a time that we know that they're traveling together and also a good point in their relationship. Right between NEXT and TRY. Also, because the manga version of Premium is just so much better than the movie version, I'll be going by the manga in the story. Although, it doesn't make much of a difference, except that at the end of the manga Amelia wasn't separated from the group and still speaking the Octopus language..

Disclaimer: Slayers is the property of Hajime Kanzaka and Rui Araizumi... and other people. Thanks goes to Celetinachan for providing the setting and Sleepdebtfairy for Beta reading.

* * *

It was late in the afternoon as a hay wagon slowly, but surely, rolled down a country road. 

Zelgadis and Amelia were sitting in the back of the wagon. Amelia was lying down on the mattress of hay while Zelgadis was still sitting up.

"I'm still full from all that octopus we ate…" Amelia patted her belly contently.

"I would hope so, after all the trouble we had to go through to get it." Zelgadis was busy trying to pick hay off his clothes while he spoke.

"Zelgadis-san! We didn't go through all that for the sake of food! We did it because it was the right thing to do and for the sake of Justice!" Amelia sat up. She looked like she wanted to start pointing at Zelgadis.

"There's also the fact that we were under the octopus curse ourselves." Zelgadis replied calmly.

Amelia almost started pouting a little. "Well, anyway… It's nice not to have to walk for once! This way we can just relax and enjoy the scenery!"

Zelgadis finally looked up from his clothes to examine his surroundings. "Well… that is true." he replied, although he didn't sound especially enthusiastic.

Amelia stretched her arms in the air then stood up in front of the open side of the wagon. "I think the sun is going to set soon. I bet that'll be pretty to watch!"

"Amelia, I don't think that's very safe…"

Almost as if Zelgadis had jinxed her, the wagon suddenly hit a bump in the road, which caused it to jerk and Amelia to start tipping backwards.

Zelgadis' eyes widened and from then on his movements were all instinct. He jolted forward and grabbed Amelia's arm to keep her from falling anymore, then wrapped his other arm around her torso to support her back.

Zelgadis hardly remembered moving at all, but now he was suddenly in an awkward position. Well, at least she was safe. Of course, that was when he started realizing that he'd overreacted. He distinctly remembered thinking, "What if she dies?" The wagon wasn't moving very fast and fall wouldn't have been that big at all. Amelia had fallen from worse heights before and still came out fine. The most she would have gotten was a bump, which a healing spell could fix if they wanted to put forth the effort. It was stupid to panic like that…

He was awoken from his inner-rant when the driver of the wagon spoke to them, "I charge extra if you're gonna be doin' kissy-stuff."

That was when Zelgadis realized that he was still holding onto Amelia. He let her go so quickly that he practically tossed her back into the wagon.

"Ahm…. Sorry about that." Zelgadis was pointedly not looking at Amelia as he spoke. Probably to hide a blush.

Amelia was obviously quite flustered herself. "N-No, it's fine.." Amelia started distracting herself by 'arranging' the hay around her in a way that would make it more comfortable to lie down on.

* * *

Nearly half an hour passed and they were now both lying down in the hay and not saying anything to each other. 

Amelia began playing with a piece of hay idly, "Hey, you know, Zelgadis-san? I'm….. I'm glad I'm in a hay wagon with you."

Zelgadis glanced over at her with a blank expression, "What?"

"Ack! No, I didn't say that right at all! What I mean is…" Amelia was starting to get worked up and now she was even flapping her arms a little. "What I mean is I'm glad I'm in a hay wagon with _you_. It's nice to be traveling with just you every once in a while. I mean, it is nice to travel with Lina-san and Gourry-san too, but sometimes…"

Amelia was rambling now, but Zelgadis still understood what she was trying to say… But at the same time it didn't make any sense to him for different reasons. He was now openly staring at her while she rambled on.

"I don't know… it's just nice. I just wanted to say that…" Amelia finally concluded her rambling and laid down in the hay again. She looked over to Zelgadis for a response, but now he was making a point of not looking at her again.

Another long, awkward silence stretched out, but Zelgadis didn't notice. Things were loud enough in his head for all the thoughts that were running through it.

_Does she mean….? No, she can't mean that. She doesn't know what she's talking about. But that doesn't mean that she had to mean it that way… She _couldn't_ mean it that way… Is she expecting me to do something now? She's not saying anything. She probably is, but should I? That might give her the wrong idea… Wait, wrong idea about what? What am I thinking?_

Zelgadis shifted his gaze to his hand at his side. Should he do something? If he didn't give her some kind of response then she'd probably start feeling bad and wished she hadn't said it… but then again, it might have been better if she hadn't. If she hadn't said what she did then he might not have been so confused right then. He wouldn't have been forced to consider…. things that he normally wouldn't think about.

Zelgadis slowly lifted his hand up. His hand hesitated in the air for a moment before he started moving it over to Amelia's hand. He finally shifted his gaze to look at her…

Only to realize that she was asleep. She was sleeping peacefully with a little bit of drool coming from the corner of her mouth. (Was this the way that a princess slept?)

Zelgadis sighed in exasperation. Well, he had already come this far… He moved his hand over the last little bit of space and let it rest on top of Amelia's. Somehow, he finally had a clear thought.

I'm glad too…

SNORT

Zelgadis quickly jerked his hand away when a sudden loud noise interrupted the silence. He was almost tempted to shout, "I didn't do anything!"

After he calmed down he realized that the sound had just been Amelia snorting suddenly in her sleep.. He looked both ways suspiciously, before he let his hand rest on hers again.

The sun began to set as Zelgadis closed his eyes. Sleep was probably a good idea. Too bad Amelia didn't get to see the sunset like she wanted to, but he personally thought that sunsets were overrated anyway.

* * *

It was still dark outside when Amelia began to wake up a few hours later. She yawned and started to cover her mouth, but felt a weight on her hand. She looked over and found a familiar blue hand belonging to a certain Zelgadis-san, resting atop hers. 

She smiled. Maybe it was a good idea after all…


End file.
